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November 2, 2011

It is beginning to sound like a broken record; bad weather across the world causing shortages of seafood.

The good news is that boats came to port in Central and South America on All Saints day yesterday. We were able to get some good amounts of Mahi Mahi at good prices. We were also able to get some Tuna, Caribbean Red Snapper from Surinam, as well as a small amount of Dotted Lane Snapper and B-liners from Central America.

Grouper is still tight in Mexico because the Octopus season is in full swing, the holiday and another new tropical storm possibly on the way. We do not expect prices or availability to improve much over the next couple of days.

The holiday affects a lot of boats in Central and South America as well as Farm Fisheries so you might see some tightening of supply on Tilapia and Chilean Salmon Fillets. We do have a nice supply this week but prices may inch up a bit, although it is not a given as of yet.

For domestic fish, we were able to get a fair shot of Gulf Red Snapper and Red Grouper. We were able to get some Domestic Swordfish and Tuna, as well as, some Drum out of Louisiana and Amberjack out of the Florida Keys and the Gulf.

We are starting to see some Flounder show up in the mid-Atlantic and prices are down.

We also have sourced a little bit of Wild Striped Bass coming in today.

It seems that Stone Crab season is off to a slow start and the fishermen are reporting catches being down but are optimistic that they will improve.

For exotic farmed species, we have managed to secure a good amount of Imported Loup de Mer from Greece in between strikes. We also have some Farmed Turbot coming this week from Chile on a pre-order basis.

Some additional special farmed fish we have arriving this week are the Norwegian Salmon Trout, which are huge and very fatty, and some Kona Kampachiâ from off of the Kona coast of Hawaii.

Another wild special fish we have today is Escolar, which is the proper name for the fish that is all over the news. The Boston Globe and Consumer Reports have reported that this fish is being sold at restaurants and sushi bars as ‘White Tuna’.  Escolar is really the only name this fish can be legally called.

This brings us to something we believe in, and want to share with our customers, which is “you get what you pay for” here in everything we sell. Inland Seafood is proud to be a member of the National Fisheries Institute and was one of the organizational committee members who founded the ‘Better Seafood Business Bureau’ of the National Fisheries Institute to protect our customers, and all consumers, from seafood
fraud and misrepresentation.

Species substitution is a major seafood fraud story as you may have seen in the news. It is very important that product is sold as the correct species name. All of our invoices are marked with correct species information so you may correctly inform the consumer. It is not just ‘Buyer Beware’ anymore. We at Inland as well as your establishment are obligated to inform the consumer of the correct name of the seafood sold.

We stand behind this and if you should have any questions please ask your Inland Sales Representative. If we do not have the answers, we will get them. We also refer you to the FDA website at http://www.fda.gov/food/foodsafety/product-specificinformation/seafood/regulatoryfishencyclopediarfe/default.htm for a list of acceptable names for certain fish.

For example, Escolar should not be called a White Tuna; it is not even close to the Tuna family. Gulf Red Snapper can only be from one fish which is Campeche Lutjanus (the latin name). This fish only originates from the USA and Mexico. It does exist in Cuba but we do not have trade relations there yet. No other fish can be called a Gulf Red Snapper which is why we have always identified the correct specie on our invoices.

Another one of the most widespread seafood frauds is short weight (i.e. glazing with 10-30% water added to the product). This is done on everything from Lobster tails, Shrimp, Tilapia, and Squid, Whiting, and Swai and many other items. We have seen offerings, especially coming out of China and other Asian countries, and we will not knowingly procure any of these products. When we find that producers are glazing and short weighing product, we return the product and demand a refund. This does not mean that all frozen products from Asia or other countries are glazed but when a price is “too good to be true”, there is probably a reason.